System and a Method for Managing Building Projects
A system and method for comprehensive data integration and management of large-scale building projects. The building projects comprised of a planning module (100) which supports entrepreneurs's decision making processes by enabling them to compare the costs and resources needed for the planned project according to different scenario plans (105). The second enables a semi-automatic translation of design plans drawings into inventory lists and building tasks (110). The third is a real-time project management module (120) which offers extensive tools for keeping track of projects' progress.
The present invention is a system and a method for comprehensive management of large-scale building projects; more specifically it is a computerized system and method for comprehensive management of large-scale building projects which include semi-automatic integration of images of design drawings.
The ever increasing complexity of large-scale building projects demand that professionals in the building industry find more effective and reliable methods of working. Such building projects demand the coordination and the cooperation of a large number of professionals from a wide variety of fields of expertise. In addition to having architects, engineers, and contractors respond to their clients' requests for building designs, cost estimates, and construction schedules in connection with construction projects, they also need to insure that such information and data is accurate. To remain competitive in today's marketplace, professionals in the building industry also need to dramatically reduce the time it takes to develop the requested information and data, as well as the overall project delivery time, at no expense to the quality of the project or the accuracy of the budget estimate.
Known in the art are several project management tools for aiding project managers of building projects. International Patent Application no. WO0167372, for instance, is a computer-implemented automated building design, modeling, construction project cost estimating and scheduling system. The system provides a central source for all design and construction information for a construction project in a coordinated two- and three-dimensional spatial database that is freely accessible by all members of an interdisciplinary construction project team. The system acquires and stores all appropriate design, engineering and construction expertise and information available for any building type for use in automatically assembling and coordinating the design, cost-estimating, and scheduling for a construction project.
While this tool provides comprehensive project design and management tools, its application relies on having the planning, designing and executing teams use the proposed system's tools. But most professionals are accustomed to working with proprietary tools and are not inclined learn how to work in new environments. More specifically, the designing team has Computer Aided Designing (CAD) applications which are specifically suited for their needs, and each company has its preferred software application.
There is therefore a need for a comprehensive construction management tool which can integrate data from the graphic plans and designs, without having to rely on the project designing teem to work with a specific CAD application. Such a solution would need to analyze data from images of design plans and integrate it into a project management tool.
These and further features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly understood in the light of the ensuing description of a preferred embodiment thereof, given by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein—
The present invention offers comprehensive tools for managing all stages of large-scale building projects. The disclosed management tools are software applications which allow the user to specify the project requirements for the planning team and translate building plans into the necessary data for managing building projects such as operational tasks, lists of required materials, budget planning and scheduling. The tool also enables keeping track of the project's progress and dynamically updating cost and schedule calculations. Unlike prior art, which may only utilize a specific computer aided design (CAD) application, the disclosed system allows project designers to use any type of designing tool. The system may even integrate scans of hardcopy drawings. The system extracts all necessary information from the design in a semi-automatic manner.
As illustrated in
The system supports all the decision making procedures of the planning stages, including sets of tables and diagrams for the project's entrepreneurs and investors. These tools cover all financial and operational considerations which need to be taken into account at the planning stages such as investments analysis, costs verifications and expected expenses breakdowns. As illustrated in
First, all the external and internal walls of each unit are marked. This stage allows the tool to define the boundaries of the unit and perform initial calculations regarding the area in question. Next, all the openings may be identified and their specifications defined. Then the administrator marks on the image of the plan all the other components and their specifications, such as the details of the plumbing, electricity and the like.
Referring back to
Next, the row data is processed by the system in order to produce the information needed for the project.
As illustrated in
The project management module 120 facilitates the project's decision making stage and operational coordination of the project execution. After all the data from the planning stages is extracted, the system allows the project managers to efficiently make the necessary decisions regarding the project executions, such as comparing prices and bids and planning schedules. The system can also automatically issue work and material orders.
Extensive managerial tools are available for the project coordinator as the project is carried out. These tools allow the users to dynamically update the project's progress and receive an accurate representation of the project situation in real-time. The user may, for instance, dynamically compare the planned budget with the actual accumulated costs, follow the progress of the work and compare it to the predefined schedules, receive constant updates about the raw materials' inventory and calculate usages efficacy of materials, machinery and human resources. The operational coordination tools may run on laptop computer or PDAs and receive information inputs in any electronic format.
While the above description contains many specifications, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the invention, but rather as exemplifications of the preferred embodiments. Those skilled in the art will envision other possible variations that are within its scope. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by the embodiment illustrated, but by the appended claims and their legal equivalents.
Claims
1. A system for managing building project enabling to translate building plans and design into operative resources lists including a list of required materials and required work hours, said system is comprised of:
- design converter module wherein the design converter module enable to extract from the building plans and design required relevant raw data for calculating operative resources lists;
- a planning module and real time project tracking module, wherein these modules calculation outputs are based on said extracted data.
2. The system of claim 1 further providing budget planning and scheduling basing its calculations on
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the real time project tracking module enable to keep track of the project's progress and dynamically update cost and schedule calculation.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein the drawings are extracted from computer aided designs.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein the drawings are extracted from scanned designs.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the planning module provides decision making by enabling to compare the costs and resources needed for the planned project according to different scenario plans.
7. The system of claim 6 wherein the different scenario are derived from estimations of the different types of materials, human resources and the duration of the specific plan.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein converter module is operated in accordance with following steps: identifying and marking the significant elements of the plan, defining the boundaries of the elements, performing initial calculations regarding the area of the elements, extracting row data from the marked elements, said raw data including detailed specifications, quantities and components types.
9. The system according to claim 1 wherein the link between the specification drawings objects and the row data is a bidirectional link enabling continuous update of the drawings.
10. The system of claim 10 wherein the bidirectional link maintain both the graphic representation of the project and the raw data constantly up to date at all stages of the project as changes are made.
11. The system of claim 1 further comprising an accounting module, a task manager module, a materials module, a resource manager module and a maintenance module.
12. The system of claim 1 further comprising an asset registration module and an asset management module wherein the costs for these module are calculated on the basis of the raw data.
Type: Application
Filed: Aug 10, 2006
Publication Date: Oct 16, 2008
Inventor: Shlumi (Shlomo) Oren (Yehood)
Application Number: 12/064,657
International Classification: G06Q 10/00 (20060101);